State police chased a suspected shoplifter through the Walmart store in Lower Macungie Township on Wednesday night before he ran outside and died in gunfire, store employees said.

The young man was shot about 9:25 p.m. outside the 1091 Mill Creek store, just south of Hamilton Boulevard. The man got into a white minivan, which was parked about 50 yards from the store, and died there, the workers said.

Minutes later, police were looking at his body, which ended up either in the driver’s seat or on the pavement just outside the driver’s door, the workers said.

Witnesses said they didn’t know whether a trooper was injured in the chase and gunfire.

State police at Fogelsville had no comment Wednesday night on the death at Walmart. A news conference on the “officer-involved shooting” was held 11 a.m. Thursday at state police’s Bethlehem headquarters on Airport Road.

At the news conference, police said the shoplifting suspect was in the parking lot when he turned and fired one shot at the trooper pursuing him, and the trooper returned fire, hitting the man about seven times as the man ran to the minivan, got in and pointed the gun again at the trooper. The man was found dead with a handgun in the driver’s seat, police said.

State police, Lehigh County detectives and the county coroner’s office gathered evidence late Wednesday and into Thursday morning. The body was carried on a stretcher from the minivan to a nearby coroner’s hearse about 12:25 a.m. Thursday.

State police investigate a man's death that followed gunfire Wednesday night at the Walmart in Lower Macungie Township. A trooper was pursuing the man on foot just before shots were fired, witnesses said.

(Frank Warner)

Earlier, a line of nine troopers, flashlights in hand, marched side-by-side across the parking lot looking for evidence of the gunfire reported there. Investigators also closely searched the minivan.

Witnesses to the shooting said details of the chain of events were hard to pin down. Either they individually saw or heard only small parts of the events, or the things they witnessed happened so fast that they weren’t clear.

Investigators had to sort out the reports of an exchange of gunfire between the suspected shoplifter and a trooper. They dismissed one early report that a trooper used a stun gun on the man before the gunfire broke out.

Store employees said the man was reported shoplifting earlier in the evening and may already have carried stolen items from the Walmart to the minivan before he was confronted by the trooper.

About 50 customers and 25 employees were in the store when the trooper started running after the young man, an employee said. No shots were fired inside the store, he said.

The young man ran out the Walmart’s “grocery” entrance, which from the parking lot is the entrance to the right, employees said. The other entrance is the “home and pharmacy” door, to the left.

Only seconds after trooper followed the man outside, shots rang out, the workers said.

A moment later, Walmart managers notified the staff that the man had been shot. The worker said they were told to help evacuate the store to let police begin their work.

State police requested the parking lot be sealed off after the customers and most workers left. Lower Macungie fire police kept guard on the parking lot.